We would like to alert you to an ominous development in Israel. Having denied Palestinians under Occupation their rights to any form of political protest, the Israeli government is now in the process of doing the same to Israeli citizens who support the Palestinian cause. Last week the Israeli police arrested Ezra Nawi, our friend and prominent dissident, who has been indispensable in the struggle for the survival of Palestinian communities in the South Hebron Hills.

Since his arrest, our friend has had access to a lawyer denied for 4 days, remanded for a week and is still being held on trumped up charges. To make things worse the court has issued a gag order barring us from discussing any details of the case. This arrest is not an isolated incident but the latest in an orchestrated campaign against dissenting voices supporting Palestinian rights. In recent months the Israeli government has taken new steps to demonize, deny funding access, and now literately threaten with imprisonment, those of us who oppose its criminal policies. And while these violations of Nawi’s rights are no more severe than the routine violation of the rights of Palestinians in countless ways, they do however signal a new stage in Israel’s practice of violently crushing dissent and resistance.

This gag order in particular sets a precedent. If it goes unnoticed, the nearly impossible task of influencing our government, may well become completely impossible.